Welcome to The Chaplains Corner!
Rev Dominic Hubbuck
My role at the Federation involves supporting the spiritual input, faith development and the pastoral care of everyone in the school community.
My background before being ordained was working with children, young people and families. It has often included play, creating safe spaces for families and supporting people to explore faith as they do life.’
Today is going to feel a bit like this I think. I wonder whether yours will too.
One of our daughters came down and started the day wrapped in a warm blanket and watched a DVD from when she was very small.
One of our sons came and asked for hug.
And I am sitting eating a toasted teacake for breakfast.
There are a lot of people this morning worried about the words of the Prime Minister yesterday and what it all means.
He used the phrase Stay Alert like we haven’t been all along and the questions that formed as possible conditional solutions were offered became more and more as the time went on. And what we wanted was clarity and what we got was far from it.
You may have heard me quote American Author Brené Brown – ‘Clear is kind; Unclear is unkind.’
It was Monday May the seventh when the news went out.
Hitler had been dead a week and the Russian troops had finished fighting in Berlin.
The news went out that peace papers had been signed and the war in Europe had ended.
The time is long but…
It hasn’t stopped the sun from shining.
It hasn’t stopped the blossom blooming.
And it hasn’t stopped the birds from singing either.
Spring is under way and signs that summer will happen too.
Because the world is waiting and it is waiting out there for you.
A bush, burning as if on fire but not being scorched…like Moses saw. (Exodus 3)
Three figures in the distance calling you to come and meet them…like Abraham saw. (Genesis 18)
A talking donkey…like Balaam saw. (Numbers 22)
Some people go to the garden, others to the kitchen, some to the beach and others to a favourite film or book they know every word and every scene to.
Where do you go when you need to calm yourself, get away from what is stressing you or making you anxious.
Where do you go when you need to reconnect with something bigger and something other than you?
Our whole lives seem to be governed by choices. Left or right, yes or no, the chocolate or the plain.
We choose user names and passwords, we choose what to eat, when to go, what to wear, how much to cut off.
Although the title makes it sound like I am giving in, you may need to be reminded that enough is enough.
We use this phrase sometimes to show our exasperation and to say that we have had all that we can take and that we will take no more.
But I want us to reclaim this phrase to remind us of the real meaning of enough.
‘Peace is not just the absence of conflict; peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish…’
These words of Nelson Mandel resonate with me this week. As we prepare for the remembrance 75 years on from Victory in Europe Day (May 8th), and as we live through a time where there may not be war within our lands - there is definitely not much peace in which all may flourish.
It’s a word I can never spell correctly. Not enough Hs and I put an N on the end for some strange reason.
But life’s Rhythm is something that drives all of us. It is a powerful beat in all of us.
I was told…many moons ago…by my history teacher, that when someone sneezed people would say ‘Bless You’ because there was nothing that could be done for you as you probably had the plague. Later on, another History teacher told me that it wasn’t true and that we say ‘Bless You’ because as we sneeze, we are vulnerable to evil spirits entering the body…either way, there was nothing more that could be done.
Have you thought how important and how powerful your name is?
As a child when you’re being called back to the house to be told off and your full name is being used.
As a school child being called up, for a nice reason, to the front of the hall by the Headteacher.
As an adult when you see your name in print, or you are welcomed into a new team, or even a phone call from someone in authority who you didn’t think knew you